If it has not already been asked I pose the question "How would the GOONs respond to a question whether a specific surname had in fact been registered with them at any time?"

The easiest way to find an answer to that is to contact the Guild. Through the contact address on their website. ( reading the website content does not, unfortunately, provide an answer )

Cuimhnichibh air na daoine bho'n d'thainig sibh

RootsChat is the busiest, largest free family history forum site in the country. It is completely free to use. Register now.Also register instantly with Facebook or Twitter (and other social networks). Start your genealogy search now.

RootsChat is the busiest, largest free family history forum site in the country. It is completely free to use. Register now.Also register instantly with Facebook or Twitter (and other social networks). Start your genealogy search now.

'Currently, over 2,400 people have registered over 7,900 study surnames with us '

When someone joins the Guild they are allocated a unique member number (you will see mine is 5000, I joined in 2008) and these are not reallocated after someone leaves. The last person to register in 2010 was given number 5577.

That would suggest to me approximately 3,200 members have lapsed for one reason or another, over the last 32 years.

The Guild did a survey last year to look at membership retention. People who have been with the Guild for a long time tend to stay, though there is inevitably a churn rate through sickness and death. Almost 25% of the members who originally joined in 1979 are still with the Guild today.

One of the problems that the survey highlighted was that members were unaware of all the services we offer, and those who didn't use the many services were the ones most likely to leave. Measures are now in hand to remedy this, but one of the important services that so many members were seemingly unaware of is the facility to archive one-name study material with the Guild. The material has to be available in digital format though exceptions are sometimes made for long-standing members where no other home can be found.

There are some one-name studies that are archived with the Guild. These are known as librarian studies. If you search for one of these surnames in the online register you will get a message to say that the Guild Librarian has some material on the surname. Try searching for the surname Heppenstall as an example. The Librarian studies are also listed on the back page of the current edition of the printed register which is sent out to all members. There only appear to be a couple of hundred Librarian studies and it is a great pity that the work of so many former members has been lost, though I imagine some studies have been deposited at the SOG instead, especially in the yearly years before the digital archiving option became available.

If a surname does not show up as a Librarian study, the Registrar will be able to tell you whether or not a surname has been registered previously and he would also be able to supply the contact details of the previous registrant. You can write to the registrar at: registrar {--at--} one-name.org.

My back-of-a-postcard calculation of the lapsed membership figure is wrong, it will be lower because there are a significant number of Guild members who have not registered a surname with the Guild. I understand this may be for a variety of practical reasons.

Nothing to report I fear, my surname is not registered and does not appear to have been previously. I have however bookmarked the page as there are other interesting sites regarding surnames mentioned in the links.

Family History Help

All Census Lookups are Crown Copyright, National Archives for academic and non-commercial research purposes only.
RootsChat.com cannot be held responsible directly or indirectly for the messages or content posted by others. Inline images in messages are the copyright of the respective linked sites.